Toward the beginning, the basic premise of any given Metroid game -- and to be fair, there weren't very many for quite a long time -- was to locate and destroy all of the metroids. Given that the original game came out in 1986, that's really all the story it needed. However, Super Metroid gives us a plot that, at a glance, seems to be more of the same, but reveals more subtle storytelling devices as the player progresses. In other words, it made very strategic use of "show, don't tell." This was a common tactic of 90's gameplay, largely due to the fact that it was much easier to drop story pieces into the sets than it was to coordinate cut scenes. I often find that this method goes under-appreciated these days; I frequently hear complaints from younger gamers that older games, "are boring and don't have enough story." While some older games really don't have any meat to them, there are many that have a great amount of richness to them in the smaller details -- assuming, that is, that a player is really observing their surroundings and thinking critically about what they see. Super Metroid utilizes this technique, and executes it beautifully.

A clear example of this is the opening scene of the game. There are many game studios that might not have made the Ceres Space Station section playable at all, and instead might have simply continued Samus' monologue to explain those events as well, or might have cut the narration all together and simply printed the prologue into the manual. Instead, Super Metroid allows the player to jump right into the mystery of the eerily quiet station. After discovering the dead bodies of the scientists Samus had spoken about just a moment before, the player finds the baby metroid, only to soon discover that Samus' old foe Ridley is lurking as well. This throws the player straight into an unexpected boss battle at the very beginning of the game. In the end, Ridley steals the metroid larva for himself and escapes the space station, with Samus shortly behind him. This communicates quite clearly to the player that the antagonists of the game wanted that metroid so badly that it was worth invading a space station and battling with Samus to get it. Since we see Ridley escape with the metroid in tow, we already know that our mission in the game is to get the metroid back before Ridley -- and whomever else he may be working with -- are able to execute whatever plans they have. The fact that this scene is scripted is irrelevant; allowing the player to participate in the storytelling promotes immediate immersion far more effectively than a textwall ever will.

What really pleases me is that this sort of storytelling didn't stop with the premise. The further one delves into the game, the more of these tidbits one finds. Passing through Mother Brain's old chamber is a particularly poignant one, especially for ongoing fans of the game. For veterans, this serves as an easter egg while also confirming for them that they're in the same location as the first game. And yet, the nuance is still clear enough that even a novice can walk away with the understanding that we're treading over the remains of a previous battle, even if they don't exactly recognize that the battle in question was in a previous game. Even so, a particularly sharp newbie could still reasonably make the connection, given that the original battle is briefly illustrated in the opening flashbacks.

The fallen warrior outside of Kraid's lair is another favorite moment of mine. It not only tells the player that Kraid is enough of a threat that someone else that faced him died, it also indicates that this was some time ago, given the condition of the body at the time that it's found. This sort of suggestion is used again later in Tourian as Samus encounters the dried out husks of the various creatures she's encountered on Zebes, but it goes on to beg the question of who must have done this, as by then the player has already defeated the four major bosses (indicated by the statue that had to be passed to even get to that point, which is another brilliant way of communicating objectives to the player).

Perhaps the most critical piece of visual storytelling in the game is the moment after Ridley is defeated, when the player goes into what would normally be a reward room and instead just finds a broken container -- a container that an observant player will recognize from the beginning of the game as the one that had once housed the infant metroid. The reason this moment is so important is because, up until this point, Ridley has been shown as the "big" boss of the game. There's been no indication that Mother Brain has returned, which would lead the player to think that once Ridley was defeated, the game would be over. By denying the player the reward that seemed indicated by the opening scene, the player is then propelled forward to find the missing metroid. This is hugely important, as the player might never have a reason to explore enough to find Tourian otherwise.

Atmosphere

One thing that has always made Super Metroid stand out to me against the other games in the series is its mood. While most of the other games have a generally peppy overworld theme in some form or another, Super Metroid's overall ambience has a much darker and more eerie, uncertain feeling to it. There are a few calmer and more uplifting tracks, but none so upbeat and stimulating as the main theme of the original Metroid. Some fans feel that this is disrespectful to the series; while I think that, had it been me, I would have found some way to work the main overworld theme into the game in some manner, I don't think it hurts the game to not have it. It's hard to maintain a tense atmosphere with excessively uppity music, and Super Metroid's environments are most definitely enriched by the sense of wariness that the soundtrack imbibes. It's moody enough to bring the player to that place of unease, yet it's not a one-note experience (as noted by the theme to the jungle section of Brinstar).

I do still think it would have been a good idea to get the main theme into the game in some form, if just as another homage to the original Metroid; many game franchises are known for certain tunes. To be fair, Super Metroid is only the third game in the series, but even so, its design intends for it to take the original game and push it above and beyond anything the players had ever seen before. With that in mind, working the overworld theme into the game would've given the veterans a taste of home. I wouldn't have the song as prevalent as in the original, as that would disrupt the game's atmosphere, but it would have worked nicely as another break to the tension in a place like Maridia, for example.

The Level Design

One of Super Metroid's greatest strengths is its environments. Many platformers, especially those of the 90's, had very "themey" levels; that is, there would be a level based around fire, and another based around water, another based around plants, and so forth. (The MegaMan series epitomizes this idea.) Super Metroid has six areas -- Crateria, Brinstar, The Wrecked Ship, Maridia, Norfair, and Tourian -- and minus the Wrecked Ship, each one has more than one "face". In each location, there are at least two or three unique looks to the environment, which is a very refreshing change of pace. Super Metroid even takes things a step further and gives some of these sub-areas a distinct musical track as well. With these elements working together, the six areas feel far more expansive, which in turn assists the explorational appeal of the game.

The level design of Super Metroid gives the player more freedom than any other game in the series, as it's crafted to allow the player as many options as possible to navigate throughout the game. There are multiple methods of getting around to a player that's highly skilled, whether it's Wall Jumping, Space Jumping, or Infinite Bomb Jumping. Any problem presented to the player has enough wiggle room that it may be addressed in whatever way the player feels is most appealing. I find this especially noteworthy because Super Metroid is perfectly built to allow for a lot of sequence breaking, while most games in the series go out of their way to prevent exactly that.

Having said all of that, however, I do have problems with the level design in Maridia and Tourian. Both of these areas have design flaws that I feel are wasted opportunities and detrimental to the play experience.

Maridia

Generally speaking, Maridia isn't known for being well-liked, if just because it's a water level. Many people find the pacing of the level to be too slow, and overall the territory is seen as too big. Part of this is just due to the nature of the level, as water slows Samus down if the Gravity Suit hasn't been acquired and the reward of the territory is the Space Jump, which would naturally dictate lots of room to use it with. However, my problem with Maridia is more technical.

Like most of the areas in the game, Maridia has two entrances, one of which is on the far east side of the Wrecked Ship. Technically, this area is part of Crateria, but many players consider it part of Maridia due to its heavy use of water and the fact that Maridia is the only location it leads to. This section of the game is a surprisingly intricate maze, navigated while in morph ball form. There are enemies in this area, but there are no items whatsoever in this entire stretch. It's a baffling example of game design; there are so many locations in this area that would be a good place to hide items, and it's far more difficult to get through this entrance than the other. By having absolutely no reward attached to this route, the designers have managed to completely invalidate all of the work that went into creating it. It's harder to get to, harder to navigate upon arrival, and is full of enemies without having rewards to balance it. There's absolutely nothing to motivate the player to traverse this section of the game; it could have been entirely cut from the final product without making any kind of an impact.

This becomes even more puzzling to me when one considers the fact that Maridia, and as far as I know only Maridia, has several creatures that appear in only one room in the entire game. I can think of four separate one-room creatures found in Maridia off of the top of my head. While I certainly think they're interesting, it doesn't make sense to me when one compares that to how utterly barren the far east entrance is. Rather than pouring resources into creatures that only appear once, might it not have been a wiser idea to spend more time fleshing out that other entrance? It honestly reads as though the designers forgot about that area of the game.

It strikes me as somewhat tragic; designers obviously spent time and effort on that upper right corner, and it cost the studio time and money to build it and make it playable. It's a perfect location for an item that would be challenging to collect; if the area had some sort of effect on the 100% item collection figure, that alone would validate its presence (as a speed runner would clearly never take such a cumbersome route). Unfortunately, the area is so pointless that a lot of gamers aren't even aware of its existence -- and that's something no game designer ever wants to hear.

Tourian

I have two major problems with Tourian. The first one is something that I consider a very serious design flaw, in that it can trap the player and cost them their save file under certain circumstances. As the player progresses through Tourian, they eventually come across the sandy area that's full of dehydrated corpses, which turn to dust if touched. Once the player reaches this point in the game, the doors begin locking behind Samus, and never unlock again. This wouldn't be such a big deal, however, if there weren't a save room just beyond the Super Metroid.

This is a very, very serious flaw. Players tend to save as often as possible while playing a game anyway, but considering that the player had just had a confrontation with a creature that drained all but one unit of energy just a moment before, they would undoubtedly save in that second Tourian save room. However, if the player does save once they're past the grey doors, there's absolutely no way to get back to the rest of Zebes.

The reason this is such a problem is that, no matter how good the player is, there is going to be some mandatory damage while fighting Mother Brain. Even if the player is good enough to avoid any of Mother Brain's other attacks, there's always going to be one blast from the Rainbow Beam before the Super Metroid intervenes. I haven't experimented to find the exact amount of damage this does, but the figure I've heard is that one blast can do anywhere from 3-5 energy tanks of damage (hence why I rounded to 4 in the Characters section). If a player is attempting a low-percentage run of the game and enters with less than that amount of extra energy tanks -- perhaps they actually collected no energy tanks -- and saved in the second save room, their entire run of the game would be wasted. Likewise, perhaps a player is attempting a 100% run and missed an item, and had no idea until beating the game and getting their ending percentage. It's incredibly unfair to allow a player to get that far in the game and seal their status without any form of indication that such a thing will be happening. I see no reason why those grey doors couldn't have been made blue again after the confrontation with the Super Metroid to allow the player back into Zebes for whatever purposes they needed.

My other problem is with the overall design of the area itself. More than anything, I'm perturbed with how short and linear this section is, especially since we're just coming off of Lower Norfair just before this. Considering that this is the last area of the game, I really expected a level that would be more difficult to figure out. There's really only one path through Tourian, so there's no chance at all of getting lost. I realize that the story is important in this section, but even as a story writer myself, I don't think gameplay should be sacrificed for it.

Tourian deserved a better layout. It needed to be bigger, so that the player could really hunt for the metroid larva, and ultimately for Mother Brain. This also would've given the game a much better opportunity to display the title creature, the metroids. There are only a handful of them in the entire game; this is a pretty large step backward considering that there were 39 of them in Metroid II: Return of Samus. A more expansive level would've allowed more interaction with the metroids, as well as more time for the tension to rise as the player draws nearer to the ultimate enemies.

With the level expanded, I think that the Super Metroid itself would've made a perfect sub-boss for this level. While I do agree that the fight ought to be scripted, I wouldn't have executed it in the way that it appears in the game as we know it. The moment is over too quickly; I would've had the scripted battle more in line with the way the Ridley battle in Ceres Space Station behaves. It ultimately would have the same end point -- that is, the Super Metroid spares Samus when she's down to one unit of energy -- but the player could've had more of an opportunity to battle first. The audience isn't meant to know immediately that the Super Metroid is the same creature that Ridley stole and has since gone missing; we only find this out after the confrontation. If we're going to go into this blind, the game ought to play up the illusion that this Super Metroid is a legitimate threat and allow the player to fight it.

After the Super Metroid battle, the player heads straight to Mother Brain's chamber, which to me is not only a wasted opportunity, but a complete fumble of a dramatic story arc. There's no time for the player to reflect on what just happened and investigate what else might be going on; the fact that the Super Metroid has now wandered off again is enough of a call for more exploration in and of itself, let alone getting to the bottom of things. When the final boss is just dropped into the player's lap, it kills the sense of mystery and the build-up to the climax. Back in Lower Norfair, the obvious path led the player around into a loop, forcing the player to explore more thoroughly to find the way into Ridley's lair; Tourian ought to have been at least as deceptive as Lower Norfair, if not even moreso. An easy final level with an easy final boss causes even the best of games to end on some form of an anti-climax. Super Metroid is an amazing game that deserves an equally amazing ending.